Most GP practices in England have suffered disruption as a result of the major global IT outage, causing problems with booking appointments and issuing prescriptions.
But NHS England said there was currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services as a result of the mass computer failure, blamed on a defective Windows update.
Thousands of doctors’ surgeries have been affected after the widely-used EMIS appointment and patient record system went down.
Global IT outage: Follow live
Pharmacies have also reported issues with accessing prescriptions from GP surgeries and said this would affect the delivery of medicines to patients.
A spokeswoman for NHS England said: “The NHS is aware of a global IT outage and an issue with EMIS, an appointment and patient record system, which is causing disruption in the majority of GP practices.
“The NHS has long-standing measures in place to manage the disruption, including using paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions, and the usual phone systems to contact your GP.
“There is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services, so people should use these services as they usually would.
“Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise. Only contact your GP if it’s urgent, and otherwise please use 111 online or call 111.”
EMIS Web enables GP practices to book appointments, examine records and includes a clinical decision support tool as well as helping with admin.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Any form of disruption to our digital systems is a serious concern for GPs as it directly impacts on the care we can give to our patients.
“Outages like this affect our access to important clinical information about our patients, as well as our ability to book tests, make referrals, and inform the most appropriate treatment plan.”
Urging patients to “bear with” GPs, she added: “We really hope that the problems can be resolved quickly and that services are restored to normal as soon as possible.”
A spokesman for the National Pharmacy Association said: “We’re aware that due to global IT outages that services in community pharmacies, including the accessing of prescriptions from GPs and medicine deliveries, are disrupted today.
“We urge patients to be patient whilst visiting their pharmacy.
“We’re urgently raising this issue with the NHS England.”
Dr Farah Jameel, a GP in central London working at Museum Practice, said she was unable to access patient notes, imaging results, medication history and blood tests.
‘This is unsafe’
She said: “I think we need to underline the clinical impact of this IT disruption on how significantly it has interrupted clinical care.
“This is unsafe.”
She added: “At present, we cannot access any patient notes and are trying to assess patients on a case-by-case basis.
“We are unable to access blood test results, imaging results, clinical history and anticipate that the clinical documentation work will accumulate through the course of the day.
“Patient care pathways will be interrupted as we are unable to organise simple management plans like organising tests, and issuing regular medications.
“We are operating a clinical triage system so that we can ensure safety of our patients and see those with the greatest clinical need. Deferring all others that can safely wait to another day.”
The Wilmslow Health Centre in Cheshire wrote on X that practices “using the NHS commissioned GP computer system EMIS are currently without access to their IT systems”.
It added: “This is beyond the control of GP surgeries. Please bear with us until we have our IT systems back online.”
Solihull Healthcare Partnership in the West Midlands said on X: “Unfortunately there is a national issue with EMIS Web – our clinical computer system.
“This will affect our ability to book/consult with patients this morning.
“We will update patients when we can. We apologise for the disruption.”
Error message
A surgery in Putney, southwest London, showed an error message online when patients attempted to book appointments.
Windrush Medical Practice in Witney, Oxfordshire, said it is continuing as normal but urged patients with “routine concerns” to wait until Monday.
Central Lakes Medical Group in Ambleside wrote: “We’re impacted by the IT outage.
“This will have a big effect on us, so apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused, and delays on the phone.”
Cancellation warning
Another post by Pocklington Group Practice in the East Riding of Yorkshire said: “Due to ongoing Windows issues affecting IT worldwide, the practice is currently unable to function as normal.
“This may result in appointments needing to be cancelled and rearranged. Updates will follow when available.”
Salisbury District Hospital also confirmed in a post on social media that it had been impacted.
It said: “We are suffering some delays at our hospital with our administrative services due to the global IT outage.
“We ask patients and visitors to please bear with us as we use alternative methods.”
West Herts Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which includes Watford General, Hemel Hempstead & St Albans City Hospitals, said in a post on X: “Patient services still running.
“We have only experienced a minor impact to our IT services following today’s global IT outage.”